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Tales Of The Uncanny And Supernatural

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This book is a collection of Algernon Blackwood's stories.
Tales included:
- The Doll
- Running Wolf
- The Little Beggar
- The Occupant of the Room
- The Man Whom the Trees Loved
- The Valley of the Beasts
- The South Wind
- The Man Who Was Milligan
- The Trod
- The Terror of the Twins
- The Deferred Appointment
- Accessory Before the Fact
- The Glamour of the Snow
- The House of the Past
- The Decoy
- The Tradition
- The Touch of Pan
- Entrance and Exit
- The Pikestaffe Case
- The Empty Sleeve
- Violence
- The Lost Valley.

426 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1950

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About the author

Algernon Blackwood

1,334 books1,174 followers
Algernon Henry Blackwood (1869–1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary critic S. T. Joshi stated, "His work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's" and that his short story collection Incredible Adventures (1914) "may be the premier weird collection of this or any other century".

Blackwood was born in Shooter's Hill (today part of south-east London, but then part of northwest Kent) and educated at Wellington College. His father was a Post Office administrator who, according to Peter Penzoldt, "though not devoid of genuine good-heartedness, had appallingly narrow religious ideas." Blackwood had a varied career, farming in Canada, operating a hotel, as a newspaper reporter in New York City, and, throughout his adult life, an occasional essayist for various periodicals. In his late thirties, he moved back to England and started to write stories of the supernatural. He was very successful, writing at least ten original collections of short stories and eventually appearing on both radio and television to tell them. He also wrote fourteen novels, several children's books, and a number of plays, most of which were produced but not published. He was an avid lover of nature and the outdoors, and many of his stories reflect this.

H.P. Lovecraft wrote of Blackwood: "He is the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere." His powerful story "The Willows," which effectively describes another dimension impinging upon our own, was reckoned by Lovecraft to be not only "foremost of all" Blackwood's tales but the best "weird tale" of all time.

Among his thirty-odd books, Blackwood wrote a series of stories and short novels published as John Silence, Physician Extraordinary (1908), which featured a "psychic detective" who combined the skills of a Sherlock Holmes and a psychic medium. Blackwood also wrote light fantasy and juvenile books.

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5 stars
107 (41%)
4 stars
101 (39%)
3 stars
41 (15%)
2 stars
8 (3%)
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1 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
Profile Image for Shawn.
951 reviews234 followers
October 10, 2019
Algernon Blackwood is one of the best writers of weird fiction around, and if you've read "The Willows", you know that's true. This may be one of the best single collections of Blackwood's writings that I've run across, short of an actual "Complete Works", which I don't believe anyone has attempted yet (as stories keep being discovered) - and it doesn't have "The Willows" in it! Which is to say, some writers get typecast by their best stories and all it takes is digging below the surface a little to make you remember why they were a great writer, over and above the classic tales.

This collection gives a nice sampling of all of Blackwood's styles - straight out horror ("The Doll", "The Occupant Of The Room", "The Terror Of The Twins", "The Decoy" and "The Empty Sleeve"), the weird tale ("The Man Whom The Trees Loved", "The Valley Of The Beasts", "The Man Who was Milligan", "The Trod", "The Glamour Of The Snow", "Entrance And Exit", "The Pikestaffe Case") and some touching tales that seem almost like supernatural romances with weird events ("The Little Beggar", "The South Wind", "The Touch Of Pan"). He is a subtle and considerate writer, always surprising with some aspect in a story that you couldn't see coming. The recurrent themes of Blackwood are here as well: man interacts with the elemental forces of nature personified (in "The Valley of The Beasts", "The Glamour of The Snow" and "The South Wind", and is diluted into nothingness by those same forces in "The Man Whom The Trees Loved" - a story that seems to have a lot in common with Vladimir Odoyevsky's "The Sylph"), or with some paganistic symbol of the same ("The Trod" features faeries neither good or evil, just inhuman, which is as it should be; "The Touch Of Pan" features an appearance by the God of Panic himself, presiding over a - chastely described - orgy, and yet he's not presented as evil, but simply part of the natural order of things, unlike E.F. Benson's conception at the time - but then Benson was raised in religion, while Blackwood was a member of the Golden Dawn at one time, or so it's thought).

"The Doll" is probably the best story ever written about a creepy doll. "The Touch Of Pan" and "The Trod" feature men who feel they have some sensitivity to a natural world that the rest of coarse civilization cannot comprehend, then meet women who feel the same (one story turns out badly, one nicely) - these stories really convey a sense of yearning by Blackwood for a real soul-mate, one I believe he never found (I haven't read the bio I have on my shelf yet). "Entrance & Exit" and "The Pikestaffe Case" mine then current theories of higher mathematics and spacial geometry to bizarre ends, something I thought only H.P. Lovecraft and the Belgian writer Jean Ray had done much with - although it does make up a large part of Blackwood's "The Willows" - while "Pikestaffe" is too long (it spends a lot of time setting up the boarding house and its caretaker, and Richard Matheson did it better, after the fact, in "Little Girl Lost") there are some interesting details to the "higher space" that the Professor and his student eventually find themselves trapped in - specifically how the nearness to the space generates feelings of hope, openness and freedom. "The Man Who Was Milligan" re-interprets a classic Lafcadio Hearn tale of the worlds of art and reality intersecting to an unsettling degree, while "The Decoy" is one of the best "stay overnight in a haunted house to prove nothing can happen" stories that also mixes in a doppelganger.

Really, Blackwood is just amazing. Any aspiring writer should read him thoroughly to examine how well a story can be built with attention to detail, pacing and a touch of creativity. Now, where's that "Complete Algernon Blackwood"?
Profile Image for Arisawe Hampton.
Author 3 books75 followers
August 31, 2018
Sensitive readers be warned—Blackwood does use prevalent language considered racist in our modern era. If one can overlook or suspend judgement about it he is an otherwise fine writer in the weird fiction genre.

Algernon Blackwood was a master of the subtle "ghost" story. Unlike so many of the horror authors today, he knew that the key to true terror was a slow build-up and a subdued menace. These are some of the finest examples of his craft.

Tales include: The Doll, Running Wolf, The Little Beggar, The Occupant of the Room, The Man Whom the Trees Loved, The Valley of the Beasts, The South Wind, The Man Who Was Milligan, The Trod, The Terror of the Twins, The Deferred Appointment, Accessory Before the Fact, The Glamour of the Snow, The House of the Past, The Decoy, The Tradition, The Touch of Pan, Entrance and Exit, The Pikestaffe Case, The Empty Sleeve, Violence, and The Lost Valley.
Profile Image for Quentin Wallace.
Author 34 books178 followers
November 12, 2024
3.5 Stars

Like most weird fiction of the late 1800s/early 1900s, some of the stories I loved, while others just left me scratching my head. Overall, the prose is well written and not nearly as hard to sift through as, say, Lovecraft, but some of the stories were even more confusing.

That being said, the good stories are really good. And there's something about reading fiction from a bygone age that just makes it creepier, like back then things like this could really happen. It's hard to explain, it's just a vibe I get from reading stories written over a hundred years ago or so. I also like Blackwood's stories that are set in the wilderness. He may be the best fiction writer of stories set in the great outdoors, particularly stories from the harsh North American woods.

Overall, if you like weird stories from the pulp age of fiction, this one is worth checking out. Blackwood truly is a master of the genre.
Profile Image for Chris Naylor.
Author 17 books36 followers
July 1, 2024
A mixed bag, with some very good stories, and some that perhaps accord better with the tastes of an earlier time. Standout tales are The Valley of the Beasts, The Trod, The Pikestaffe Case, and Violence. Worth reading for those and one or two others. But I could have done without the opening and closing stories: The Doll, which now seems hackneyed, and The Lost Valley, which is melodramatic and far too long. Nevertheless, Blackwood is a good writer, and on the whole I enjoyed this collection.
Profile Image for Murray Ewing.
Author 14 books23 followers
November 23, 2014
Some of the stories were excellent ("The Glamour of the Snow", "The Touch of Pan", "The Pikestaffe Case", to name a few), some just pretty good supernatural stories, a few were awful (unfortunately, the long opener, "The Doll" was really bad). But well worth a read. The only trouble was that this edition (from The House of Stratus) was rife with typos (or whatever the word for scanning-and-spellcheck errors is): hyphens instead of long dashes, "Her" instead of "for", "ox" instead of "or", and many others. Made reading it a trial, sometimes, though the best stories still shone through.
Profile Image for Russ.
18 reviews4 followers
January 4, 2008
"The Doll" is one of the most genuinely creepy stories I've ever read...
Profile Image for Kevin Lucia.
Author 100 books366 followers
February 20, 2021
Excellent, as always. A wide, diverse collection that every fledgling speculative fiction writer should sample.
Profile Image for David McGrogan.
Author 9 books37 followers
September 7, 2021
I was impressed with the quality of Blackwood's writing, which is of a far superior quality to most contemporary pulp, and at times recalls Arthur Machen - lyrical, poetic, expressive, and filled with beautiful and startling metaphor. Also, unlike the writers with whom he is often grouped (Lovecraft being most prominent) he is clearly as much interested in people and their emotions as he is in weird ideas or spooks; his is a world populated by characters you can actually believe are real, rather than the empty ciphers of much of early 20th century horror.

With all that said, this collection is a little hit-and-miss. Many of the stories are fabulous ("The Doll", "The Man Who Was Milligan", "The Trod", "The Glamour of the Snow", "Entrance and Exit", "The Decoy", "The Touch of Pan", "The Pikestaffe Case", the endearingly melodramatic "The Lost Valley", and the absolute belting highlight, "The Man Whom the Trees Loved"). Others are good ideas, slightly clumsily executed ("The Terror of the Twins", "The Empty Sleeve", "Violence"), while some are pretty throwaway ("The Little Beggar", "The Tradition"), and a few are downright bad ("Running Wolf", "The Valley of the Beasts").
Profile Image for Georgina.
75 reviews22 followers
September 9, 2022
Superb!
If you can get past the writing ‘of its time’ and ignore the stereotypes and discrimination the stories are amazing.
The creepy doll, the wolf waiting for redemption, the trees - so many vivid pictures created. I thoroughly enjoyed this whole collection and definitely recommend it.
417 reviews5 followers
January 11, 2015
A collection of tales by Algernon Blackwood, an early fantasy/weird fiction author I cannot believe isn't better known after reading this book. Several of the tales in this book are excellent, not just because they have fantastical, sometimes scary twists and turns, but his reflections on the human condition are thoughtful and relevant to modern life, which is interesting considering this book was first published in 1950. "The Man the Trees Loved" is the crown jewel of the book, a beautifully written story exploring the concept of a man's connection to the natural world around him and how that connection is reciprocated by nature itself, sometimes at the loss of connection to humanity. "Valley of the Beasts" is similar, but with an animal focus instead of plants. "Running Wolf" and "The Lost Valley" are also good stories about closure and the sacrificial aspects of love.

The only reason this book didn't get 5 stars is that the first story, "The Doll", was a pretty standard horror story that I didn't care much for. It is also worth noting that since this book was first published in 1950, there are sometimes terms and concepts used that, while normal for that time period, that would be unacceptable today. They are not commonly used in the stories, and I argue that like many other literary classics, one should realize that 1950 is very different from 2014, and that the ideas and beauty of the stories far outshine any cultural negativeness portrayed.
Profile Image for Julian Garretti.
7 reviews
January 22, 2023
This man is the most compelling author I’ve ever read, and the only one to consistently make my hair stand with every story. Not only is his writing super effective, and his stories great—they are short! He had an exceptional talent that I haven’t seen anyone match, except perhaps Bram Stoker for all of two paragraphs in Dracula. Where horror and suspense is concerned, there simply is none better than Algernon Blackwood.
Profile Image for Kara.
59 reviews8 followers
February 28, 2012
A wonderful collection of stories by an author who deserves more recognition than he is given. Spooky, eerie, and thought provoking, this is a book for anyone looking for something more substantial than 'ghost stories.'
Profile Image for Tori.
81 reviews8 followers
May 7, 2015
My favorite story is definately The Valley of the Beasts.
Profile Image for Bibliophile.
789 reviews91 followers
October 20, 2013
An uneven collection of ghost stories. Some are bland or dated, others original and evocative. Works well in small doses on gloomy autumn nights.
Profile Image for Kirk Smith.
234 reviews89 followers
August 22, 2014
A nice collection of creepy short stories. A British author, I place the feel of the book somewhere between Poe and The Twilight Zone. Good fun. I think his stories were in some of the "pulps".
Profile Image for Chuck.
6 reviews
October 24, 2024
Couldn't get past the N word on the first page
Profile Image for Chris.
254 reviews11 followers
May 22, 2024
The more Algernon Blackwood I read, the more I get the impression that he is a link between Victorian supernatural fiction and the Twilight Zone. His characters face inexplicable situations or primeval forces which can induce awe or terror, much like in Rod Serling's famous series, but it is couched in the often overwrought language of Victorian melodrama. I'm looking at you, Wilkie Collins! Thus. you get seemingly strong-willed male characters able to thrive in remote wilderness but who lose all sense and sensibility upon catching glimpsing the sight of a lovely lass, whom though she is a complete stranger, is without doubt the perfectly matched mate for life. As for the ladies, they serve only to provide the necessary push for the men to go through their character arcs, whether as a love interest or as a mystical personification of some sort, usually very attractive but ultimately fatal.
Profile Image for Frankie Stein.
20 reviews
January 20, 2018
I loved this book, by one of the best authors of supernatural, imitated by many others.

I wanted to read this collection for sometime and have had it in my bookcase for years, you know one of those I got to sit down and read that. So glad that I did. One of the stories "The doll" is a wonderful read and one of my favorites in the collection. Delightfully strange and compelling. The stories are longer than short stories more like novellas.

Backwood's style is genuinely disturbing and needs no introduction to connoisseurs of the mysterious, macabre and the terrible. If you are familiar, this is a wonderful collection if you do not know his work start here with this amazing compilation of his best.
Profile Image for S.J. McKenzie.
Author 5 books4 followers
September 6, 2022
This one is the exact edition I have. It's beautiful, a burlap cover a bit faded but still in great condition. Purchased from Beck Book Co, Pulteney Street in Adelaide, which closed in 1978. I suspect my father bought this before he left Adelaide.

I would have been very good at being Algernon Blackwood. I would have written horror and mystery too, back when a man being attacked by his own shadow was a thing you could write about as though it had not been written before. It's still by my bedside. I'll be reading it for years.

3,480 reviews46 followers
April 5, 2025
3.94⭐

The Doll 5⭐
Running Wolf 4.5⭐
The Little Beggar 2.5⭐
The Occupant of the Room 4.5⭐
The Man Whom the Trees Loved 4.5⭐
The Valley of the Beasts 3.5⭐
The South Wind 3⭐
The Man Who Was Milligan 5⭐
The Trod 5⭐
The Terror of the Twins 3.25⭐
The Deferred Appointment 3.5⭐
Accessory Before the Fact 4.5⭐
The Glamour of the Snow 5⭐
The House of the Past 3.5⭐
The Decoy 4.25⭐
The Tradition 3.25⭐
The Touch of Pan 4⭐
Entrance and Exit 3.5⭐
The Pikestaffe Case 3⭐
The Empty Sleeve 4.25⭐
Violence 4⭐
The Lost Valley 3.25⭐
Profile Image for Anne Earney.
838 reviews15 followers
July 6, 2019
4.5 stars. Some of the language is racist and off-putting, but the stories are fascinating and creepy. I especially enjoyed the ones dealing with the slippery boundaries between the natural world and humans.
Profile Image for Brian.
24 reviews
Read
October 28, 2019
I just got a hand of the 1969 edition and in pristine condition! That's almost 50 years of excellent condition.

So far I haven't read all the entries but I picked "Touch of Pan" and it was indeed very interesting. Looking forward in finishing the entire book in a short while.
Profile Image for Rick Powell.
Author 56 books31 followers
May 4, 2020
Haunting and mesmerizing. Blackwood always delivers. The ones that stick out the most here are The Doll (of course), The Man Whom the Trees Loved, The Glamour of the Snow, and the most hypnotic The Lost Valley. Flawless, creepy writing. Easy to see why he is one of the masters of the weird tale.
Profile Image for Trista.
60 reviews
September 28, 2022
Some good weird ones in here.The Pikestaffe Case and The Lost Valley are among the last few in the collection and I really enjoyed them.
Author 2 books1 follower
June 21, 2016
Dear old Algie! They don't write like you any more. I picked this up as a curio many years ago and started reading in Winter and finished on Halloween. Now I'm totally hooked. Quirky, ranging from sweet (Running Wolf) to scary (The Doll) with a good respect for pantheism, magic and mysticism. These stories are about what Algernon Blackwood himself called "the terror of the mind", what Stephen King later called psychological or psychic terror. No common schlock-horror here. Not a dismembered zombie in sight! Looking for more Algernon Blackwood for next Winter.
Profile Image for TrumanCoyote.
1,109 reviews14 followers
August 24, 2016
Not nearly as good as I thought it was going to be. Algie tends toward prolixity, and the frequent repetitiousness definitely dilutes the effect (all of which reminds me a bit of Frasier's great line: "So you're saying that I repeat myself--that I commit tautologies--that I say the same thing over and over again!"). "The Little Beggar" is about the best thing here (and only a few pages, all quite well-controlled). On the other hand, that thing about the trees proved to be an unending droning pointless morass...
Profile Image for Aric Cushing.
Author 13 books99 followers
Read
February 11, 2014
Algernon rarely disappoints. This is a good mix of his stories, with some extremely well done, and others simple in their execution. For the audience of today, some of the simple stories may seem like short tv episodes they've seen before, but the excellent stories make up for the lot.
Profile Image for Michael.
146 reviews5 followers
January 30, 2017
These stories are not an "easy read",written in the early 1900s the language doesn't come easy on modern ears and eyes. These stories are wildly imaginative and as such, should be recommended as required reading for any fan of horror or fantasy.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews

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